Rose Tyler and the PhD
by Oi-Watch-It-Spaceman
Summary: Hospital AU. Rose is just starting out as a receptionist in a hospital when she meets the mysterious Doctor John Smith, who is charming and intriguing to say the least, and also happens to be looking for an assistant...
1. Chapter 1

**I do love an AU :P I thought that the Doctor could be an actual Doctor for a change, after all, he always wears a long coat, it's not really that much of a change. Expect much fluff and romance. Allons-y!**

Rose wasn't cut out to be a receptionist. At least, that was the opinion that she had formed in the 1 day, 45 minutes and 36 seconds that had elapsed since she had started this new job. As it turned out, a job as a receptionist in a hospital was not really as hard as it had first seemed, which had seemed a blessing. However, as the hours had ticked by, Rose felt the familiar boredom beginning to set in, as it had done with most of the other jobs that she had tried. The other receptionist was reasonably civil, but Rose got the feeling that she was not well liked by her, if the occasional angry stares were anything to go by.

Rose sighed, moving a stack of finished paperwork from in front of her and distributing it to the appropriate drawers, bending down behind the desk (why were desks in hospitals always so high? It almost came up to her neck) to collect some more forms. It wasn't like she really needed another friend – she had a few, but really she was fine in her own company – but getting on with work colleagues, having someone to actually talk to and pass the incredibly mind-numbing hours with was something she would've quite liked.

"Excuse me?" A voice from above her head caused Rose to look up sharply, staggering back to a standing position so fast that she nearly lost her balance. She had assumed that the voice came from a patient, but on standing up she found herself face to face with a doctor, wearing a white lab coat over a brown pinstriped suit and looking at her with brown eyes that she was sure were causing her vaguely confused state, rather than the sudden rush of blood to the head that she was experiencing.

"Err, yeah...hi. Can I help you?"

Rose was actually shocked that she had managed a complete sentence, but as soon as the man grinned at her she was glad she had spoken before he had smiled. His smile was nothing if not dazzling, lighting up his face in a way that seemed to say "this smile is just for you, you are the most important person in the world."

"Hi, sorry, I don't think we've met yet," he said, holding out his hand for her to shake. It took her a little longer than she should to respond, but shaking his hand was the best thing she had done all day – strong fingers, warm and smooth, and it seemed to fit perfectly with hers. "I'm Doctor John Smith, but you can call me John. I'm a consultant."

"Hello Doctor—err, sorry, John." Rose fumbled with her words, not helped by his good natured chuckling at her mistake. "Sorry, I'm a bit out of sorts, it's only my second day and I'm still getting the hang of things."

"Ah, well that explains why I've never seen you around before then. I just needed to borrow a pen actually; all mine to seem to inexplicably end up disappearing."

Rose grinned, handing him a biro. "I've got to say, you seem to be the first nice person I've met around here, everyone seems a bit..."

"Evil?" John supplied.

Rose laughed. "I was going to say "standoffish", but your word'll do."

"They are, especially Tracy, the other receptionist. When she's coming towards you, my suggestion is just to run as fast as you can in the opposite direction." John seemed partly joking, but partly in earnest.

Rose raised one eyebrow. "Do a lot of running around the hospital?"

John shrugged. "Not much, but you've got to keep fit somehow – why not avoid a few unpleasant people while you're at it?"

Rose took in John's skinny but not too skinny physique, wiry yet strong at the same time, and privately thought that he didn't really need to exercise, he was perfect just as he was. _Perfect? _She asked herself, _did you really just think he was perfect? You met him about a minute ago! _Rose was inclined to think she was being a bit hasty, but the shock of thick brown hair, the sideburns, the freckles, the beautiful lips and the well cut suit all seemed to combine so well, like pieces of a puzzle. Everything about him seemed a bit strange but it all fit together perfectly, and Rose found him intriguing to say the least.

"Well, I've better be off then," John sighed. Rose hoped she heard a hint of annoyance in his voice, a hint that he would rather stay and talk to her than go back to work. "What use is a consultant if he's not consulting?"

He began to walk away, and as he reached the corridor Rose caught sight of his shoes – cream converse trainers, poking out from under his striped suit trousers, squeaking a little on the polished floor as he walked. She smiled – what other shoes would he possibly wear? – but quickly smothered it as he turned back towards her.

"I forgot to ask, what was your name?"

"Rose."

"Nice to meet you Rose - run for your life!" He turned and bolted around the corner, but not before looking pointedly over her shoulder. She turned and caught sight of Tracy the receptionist approaching her.

Rose grinned and ducked down behind the desk again, hoping to avoid the moment when Tracy noticed that she had made no progress at all in the last 5 minutes. It wasn't Rose's fault, she blamed John. The mysterious doctor. She began to collect up more paperwork, hoping that the impending loss of the pen she had just given him would bring him back to her desk sooner rather than later.

**Well there you have it. Hope you liked it :) I'm also posting it on my tumblr account - donna-and-her-spaceman. There will be more in the next day or so. Review if you want, or don't. You know, I'm not going to dictate your lives for you, you have free will after all. So do what you like, and I hope you carry on reading :P**


	2. Chapter 2

**Well here's the second chapter. I'm not really sure how many chapters there'll be, I'm pretty much going with the flow of the fic right now, though it'll probably be at least five. I'm enjoying writing this one, I think that in a lot of AUs the Doctor suddenly becomes really clumsy and awkward and besotted with Rose (though we all know he really is besotted with Rose ;P), which I love, but I wanted to keep some of his famous arrogance - he is after all still extremely clever, and he knows it :P Anyway, enjoy! **

It was two days before Rose saw the mysterious Doctor again. She had not exactly been waiting for him, but there was definitely a sense of disappointment as she put on her coat and went home in the evening, having passed another day without the appearance of the only decent person in the hospital that she had met.

It was the afternoon of the third day and Rose was leaning on the desk, staring out of the glass doors and wishing she was far away, when someone tapped her on the shoulder.

She turned round in a split second, jerked out of her thoughts by the appearance of John, who had jumped back in order to avoid getting smacked in the face and had apparently almost spilt the two cups of coffee he was carrying, balanced precariously one on the top of the other.

"How do you manage to sneak up on people like that?" Rose asked accusingly, as John carefully placed the cups of coffee down on the desk.

He grinned at her before stepping backwards and holding up one leg for her to admire the converse boot that was on his foot. "Rubber soles, swear by 'em!" he said, before adding "I got you a coffee, seems like I was just in time too, couple of seconds later and you'd have been off to sleep."

"Well it's not exactly like this job is allowing me to stretch my mind," Rose said, taking a sip of her coffee. "Hey, this has sugar in it – how did you know?"

"Lucky guess?" He shrugged. "You look like a sugar sort of person, you know…sweet?" He said it as a question, as though he hadn't really considered it before, but the way he looked at her was making Rose feel a bit woozy again, so she took another sip and decided to ask him something she had forgotten to ask the last time they had met.

"So what do you actually do? I mean, what does a consultant have to do around here, you seem to wander around a lot."

"Well that's basically what I do," John agreed, leaning one elbow on the desk and holding his coffee with his other hand. "Bit of a lonely wanderer I suppose, people ask me to come in for patients that they can't help or when they need a bit of extra help in diagnosing."

"Like Dr. House," Rose said without thinking, hoping that he had watched "House MD" and that she wasn't going to seem stupid.

"Yeah, only less grumpy and without the team of helpers. Oh, and without the limp." He danced a little dance on the spot to demonstrate, causing an old woman walking past to give him a look of disapproval, as though a doctor should know better than to dance like a fool in the hospital foyer. They managed to hold in their laughter until she was out of sight, bursting into hysterics the moment the automatic doors had closed behind her.

"So, you work alone then?" asked Rose when they had finally regained their composure, though not quickly enough to escape an accusing glance from Tracy the other "evil" receptionist, who was working at the other end of the desk and apparently didn't approve of people being happy.

"Yep. It's not the best, but it's the way it's always been. I've had assistants you know, now and then over the years, but in the end they all leave, they get promoted or whatever and I'm on my own again. I suppose I'm a bit of a pain to work with after a while – the last one left a few months ago, there's no-one else." He looked very sad for a moment – Rose supposed he was remembering all the friends who had left over the years – and she found herself itching to hug him, to stop him looking so melancholy.

"There's me." Rose did not even realise she'd said it, but when his face slowly transformed into a warm smile she was glad that she did.

"Indeed there is," he said happily, taking another gulp of his coffee and throwing the empty cup with unerring precision into the bin. Rose did not want him to witness her atrocious throwing skills and so she took a small sip from her cup and put it down.

"Actually, that's a thought." John had suddenly began to smile wider, if that were even possible, moving his lab coat back in order to stick his hands into his trouser pockets, rocking on his heels with glee. "Rose Tyler – found out your surname from where you signed that form," he added when she looked confused at how he had known, pointing at the aforementioned form accusingly, "would you care to leave your extremely boring job as hospital receptionist and come and work with me as my assistant?"

Rose was astonished at his casual approach to picking a person to work for him, especially since he had only met her twice and had absolutely no idea if she was any good at what she did. "It it always this…weird?"

"Yeah," he said, eyes opening wide as though he though weird was the most exciting thing on the planet.

Rose didn't know what she was going to say to him, but when the answer finally came it was definitely not what she was expecting. "No, I'm sorry I can't. You know, I've just started here, I don't think I can just leave…"

She trailed off, hating to see the expression of carefully controlled disappointment that had appeared on his face. He did not suit controlled, he was bizarre and wild and unpredictable – seeing him closed off just seemed wrong. "It's fine," he said, casually waving a hand at her as she began to try to apologise. "No really, it's OK. See you around, Rose Tyler."

John walked away at a carefully measured pace – not slow and dejected, but not as though he were running away either. He rounded the corner and Rose slumped, leaning her head on the desk. Why had she done that? Why had she just turned him down? The oddest part was that it wasn't the fact that she had turned down his offer that made her want to go after him, it was the fact that she had made him look so forlorn and dejected, however blank his expression may have seemed. She couldn't leave him looking like that, she just couldn't.

Rose had stood up again, tucking her hair behind her ears, and was wondering whether he would ever come back and talk to her again when she saw his head poke around the corner, searching for her. He found her and said, with utmost seriousness, "did I mention you get the office next to mine?"

Rose began to grin. His face was full of mischief and mystery and glee and she knew what her answer was going to be immediately. She grabbed her bag from under the desk, turning towards Tracy, who was still working at the other end of the desk and clearly disapproving of Rose's conduct. Rose couldn't find it in herself to care. "You know I'm not coming back, right?"

Tracy nodded stiffly, looking as though she were glad to be rid of her. Rose turned, running out from the side of the desk and towards John, whose grin at that moment could've lit up a Christmas tree. He held out his hand and she took it, relishing the way it gripped hers and the way it felt completely right. He pulled on her arm and they were off, running down the hospital corridor, dodging patients and doctors and laughing hysterically. Rose wondered why they let John Smith even work in this hospital, when it was clear all he really did was cause trouble. Not that she cared.

**Hope you enjoyed, there'll be more either tomorrow or the next day, I swear. Also, if you didn't get the House MD reference then you really should watch it, it's awesome and had Hugh Laurie in it :P And for those of you who asked, yes there will be John's point of view. As for when, well that's for me to know and you to find out...  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**Well, I said that there would be John's point of view, but I couldn't be bothered to try and be secretive about it, so here it is. I hope you enjoy it, I am loving writing this one! Sometimes the Doctor is so hard to write, because actually he is quite alien in the way that, even in his Tenth regeneration, his is still quite guarded about his emotions e.g. not telling Rose that he loves her. I often find it quite hard to keep that element of him the same, but in this fic I'm enjoying writing him.**

_John's POV_

John was still grinning with glee as they came to the top of their third flight of stairs, though he could tell that Rose was finding it a bit difficult to keep up.

"Do you run everywhere in this place?" she forced out, holding her side with her left hand while keeping her right hand firmly in his (much to his delight).

"Oh, not all the time," he replied flippantly, carrying on at a walk through a set of double doors and along a corridor, "when I'm carrying sharp things like syringes, or hot things like coffee, I tend to slow down a little. Not all the time though, running can make carrying those things much more exciting."

Rose raised an eyebrow as she continued to catch her breath, and John wondered for a moment if he had gone too far – after all, his strange, exuberant and frankly bizarre manner had scared off plenty of people before. He had noticed that being facetious and funny a lot of the time caused people to underestimate him, which gave him the upper hand. Without boasting, John knew that he was exceedingly clever, possibly the smartest person in the hospital, and though this made him arrogant at times (a fault which he wasn't really in any hurry to correct), it was definitely an asset.

Unfortunately, and possibly because of his arrogance and intelligence, he tended not have very many friends. John had noticed a pattern in his life: he would have one or two very close friends at a time, or maybe a girlfriend instead, but that was it. He was not someone who had an enormous crowd of friends, and as soon as his one had moved on, or his girlfriend had left him (as they all inevitably did) he was alone again. And he was fine alone. Alone was OK. At least that's what he told himself.

And yet meeting Rose had been somehow different. She had immediately seemed to understand him – he knew the face of someone who was lonely and unhappy, he had seen it himself in the mirror often enough – and she had taken up his offer of being his assistant very happily, although he had asked her twice. John was shocked at himself – he would never normally ask twice.

He and Rose had lapsed into a comfortable silence as they continued along the corridor, hands still connected (John was a big fan of holding hands, although no-one else really ever seemed to feel the same way, which earned Rose extra brownie points in his opinion), and as they walked he prodded his feelings and motives, wondering what it was about this woman that had made him ask her twice.

"Ah, here it is." John stopped abruptly, realising that he had nearly walked past his own office door, Rose coming to a halt close beside him. "Rose Tyler, welcome to my office."

John let go of Rose's hand reluctantly (the fact that she was good to hold hands was carefully filed away in his brain in a folder marked "Reasons why I should be friends with Rose Tyler") and removed the key from his suit pocket. He always locked the door when he left, he couldn't explain why exactly, it just seemed like the right thing to do.

John loved his office, and he hoped that Rose would too. The door was painted a deep, dark blue, very different to all the other doors in the hospital which were inexplicably painted a particularly unpleasant red.

"I like the colour," Rose said, which immediately made John like her even more than he already did. _Woah there John, _he told himself, _you've only known her for a few days. _He watched as Rose trailed her fingers gently over the brass nameplate on his door. It read "Doctor John Smith, PhD".

"You weren't lying about being a doctor then," said Rose, and John let out a squeak of indignance.

"I think you will find I'm an excellent doctor, and I find the fact that you think I would lie just to impress you extremely insulting. Did you think I was the caretaker and just thought I was in with a shot?"

Rose was trying to smother a smile as she answered. "Well, apart from the lab coat, you aren't really dressed like a doctor, are you?"

John twisted himself around a bit, showing off his outfit and peering at it himself at the same time. "I find that the clothes I wear really don't have much of a bearing on my doctoring skills. And besides, I like it! It's sort of...oh I don't know."

"Geek chic?" suggested Rose, and John beamed at her.

"Oh yes, that's exactly it! You read my mind, thankyou!"

Rose mimed a quick bow. "You're welcome but come on, are we actually going to spend all day standing out here, "Doctor", or are we going to go in?"

"Of course we're going in!" said John, forgetting for a moment that he had already unlocked the door and nearly attempting to do it again. That would've been embarrassing. He pushed open the door and stepped quickly inside, holding it open for Rose to walk through before quickly shutting it behind her. He was now waiting for the normal response that he got whenever anyone came into his office – he had cleverly arranged and decorated it so that it appeared to hold a lot more and to be a lot larger than it was.

"Is it bigger on the inside?" Rose asked, astonished, and John mentally punched the air. He loved it when they said that.

"This is amazing!" Rose was staring all around her now at the oddly shaped walls and the strange assortment of furniture, all surrounding a large hexagonal desk in the centre of the vaguely circular room, covered with all sorts of bits and bobs. John was very proud of this design, it had taken up a large chunk of his copious amounts of spare time – he tended to solve cases very quickly, which gave him a lot of time to build things, go on adventures and get into trouble.

"How the hell did you make this work?" she said, looking back at John who was leaning with his arms folded against the wall, attempting not to look smug.

He allowed himself a grin now, removing his lab coat in one swift movement and flinging it with well practiced accuracy over the back of a large beige coloured armchair, completely ignoring the unused hat and coat stand that stood next to the door. He folded his arms again and raised an eyebrow, mimicking her expression of a few minutes before.

"Wouldn't you like to know."

**I couldn't resist the urge to make it bigger on the inside, even if it is just an illusion :P I know it's been a few chapters and the story hadn't really moved on much, but I will show their relationship evolving, don't you worry (there will also probably be kissing :P) The next chapter will probably be up tomorrow, but don't count on it, I don't make promises if I can't keep them. Thankyou for all the reviews, they make me so happy!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Well this is it, chapter four and all's well. I'm not going to be bringing in all the other companions, because I don't think I can control that many characters, so I've had to choose only a couple of them to make an entrance. You'll see who I've chosen at the end of the chapter - I hope you approve :P**

_John's POV_

They spent the rest of the afternoon sitting at John's desk – well, Rose sat at the desk on a comfy chair, while John sat on it, swinging his long legs like a schoolboy – filling out the necessary paperwork for Rose's transfer to John's department and having fun. John had laughed more in that one afternoon than he had in a long time, enjoying showing Rose all of the strange contraptions that littered his desk and giving her a tour of her office, which was a lot smaller than his but decorated in the same way. To John's delight, however, she did not spend any time in there that day, choosing to stay with him and let him explain the details of the job to her.

John was realising for the first time how much he actually needed someone to help him. Someone to stop him really. After all, he tended to get so carried away on a case (or on something frivolous that wasn't a case more often than not) that he filled in no paperwork, did not bother to make appointments and generally caused chaos wherever he went. Rose was not the most organised of people, but he had already noticed that she had a knack for saying the right thing or asking the right question.

"What time is it?" gasped Rose as she struggled to control her laughter. John had just told her one of his finest anecdotes, about the time when he was a student and he and his friends at university had all dressed up as shop window dummies and attacked people in the streets. John sometimes wondered why exactly they had thought to do that, but the look on Rose's face when he had told her about it was enough to make him grateful that he had been such an idiot at that age.

John looked at his watch. "Oh bloody hell, it's quarter past 6! I'm so sorry, the latest you should be finishing is half 5, I don't know what happened—."

"John, relax," Rose said, not looking at all perturbed by the fact that she was 45 minutes late, "it's been so fun, I haven't laughed like that in so long. And besides, if you're enjoying your job that much then working overtime isn't exactly bad news, is it?"

John was overjoyed to see the beaming smile on her face and couldn't help but return it, glad that he had manged to take away the look of loneliness and not believing that that morning he had been considering not even going to talk to her. After all, none of his assistants lasted very long and Rose seemed so nice, he didn't want their relationship to be ultimately doomed. _You are such a drama queen, who says "ultimately doomed" when describing a relationship? _John ignored the more rational part of himself and focused on Rose, who was pulling on her coat and picking up her bag.

"You gonna walk me out?" John took a moment to respond to this – he had not been expecting it – but he quickly turned around and grabbed his coat before grinning at her.

"Rose Tyler, I would be delighted." John quickly pulled on his coat (it was long and brown and he loved it, it swished out when he ran and made everything seem that bit more dramatic – _oh god I _am _a drama queen!) _ before offering Rose his arm. She linked hers through it, and together they strolled through the door and off down the corridor.

They walked together all the way down the road towards the bus stop, getting caught up in a conversation about fruit ("I love bananas so much, they're just fantastic!" "I quite like pears-," "What!? That's it, I'm sorry, but if you are going to be eating pears then we aren't going to be working together and that's that. They are the fruit of the devil, just pure evil!" "If you say so..."). John waited with Rose until her bus came.

"You don't need to wait, I'll be fine."

"Nonsense, I'm the one who made you late. And besides, I'm not waiting with you , I'm protecting the other citizens of the world. Anyone whose favourite fruit is pears should be carefully monitored at all times." John squinted at her face, leaning in towards her until she started laughing and he couldn't help but join in. He loved her laugh. It was probably the happiest sound he'd ever heard. Or, at least, it made him feel the happiest he'd been in a long time.

"Oh alright then Batman, I'm sure Gotham City is much safer now they've got you protecting them from pear maniacs like myself," said Rose, brushing her hair behind her ear. John reflected that he actually loved her blonde hair, and her hand as it brushed it back, and the ear that she hooked it behind. It wasn't that he loved Rose Tyler, he just loved little elements of her. _And that's fine_, a voice in his head seemed to say, _not creepy at all_.

Rose's bus rounded the corner and she turned to John. "I'll see you tomorrow then," she told him, and before he knew it John had grinned and hugged her. She was just the right height for him to hug and he wondered why he had never done this before. _Because you met her 3 days ago, _his brain reminded him. Oh yes, of course. That's why.

As he waved Rose's bus out of sight, John reflected that it was pretty lucky she had been waiting for a bus, because if he had just hugged her on a whim he would probably have not let go for a long time.

It wasn't until John had driven home that night and was in bed in his stripy pyjamas that he realised that, when leaving work with Rose, he had forgotten to lock his office door for the first time in history.

It took a total of 4 days before Rose moved into his office. John gave up and cleared Rose a space on his ridiculously cluttered desk after the fourth day of her sitting in the comfiest chair, filling out paperwork on her lap and distracting him from whatever he was supposed to be doing.

"It seems like I won't be getting any work done with you around, so I may as well give you enough space to do some if you can."

"Do you actually ever _do _any work?" Rose asked cheekily, giving him a sly grin with her tongue poking between her teeth just a little. John had noticed that this was a Rose Tyler trademark, and after 4 days of barely spending any time with anyone other than her, he wondered how he had ever lived without that smile in his life.

"Oi! I'll have you know that I am an integral part of this hospital's inner workings! Without me they would be lost."

"Well you _say _that, but in total you must've spent about 3 or 4 hours out of this office since I started working for you, and you definitely don't do any work while you're here."

"You're saying this isn't work?" John asked, gesturing towards the unidentifiable metal structure he was tinkering with.

Rose leaned in to get a closer look. "Oh I don't know. It just seems to me that work should be more _medicine related_, don't you think "Doctor"?"

John grinned at her now. She had taken to calling him "Doctor" ever since that first day when she had accidentally called him that instead of John. It was her own special nickname for him, and that made him much happier than he would care to admit to anyone, least of all Rose.

John had opened his mouth to reply but before the words had even formed in his brain, never mind come out of his mouth, there was a knock at the door. They both look around, slightly confused. John barely ever had people coming to see him in his office (he knew how the 'bigger on the inside' thing could freak people out) and he knew that no-one had so much as knocked on the door in the time he and Rose had been together—no, in the time they had been _working _ together, that was it.

The knock sounded again, only this time it was joined by a smooth American voice saying "knock knock".

"Oh god," said John, jumping up from his chair and turning to Rose, who was looking at him in confusion.

"What?"

"OK Rose, keep your head and just remember: he's like this with everyone, including me."

John realised that he had managed to add to Rose's confusion rather than improve it but it was too late for him to try and explain, because the door had swung open and Rose's attention was fixed on the man who stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame.

The man looked around the room before fixing his eyes on Rose. John fought the urge to bury his face in his hands and this man who he normally called his friend (though he could think of a few other names for him) walked straight up to Rose, holding out his hand for a handshake.

"Hello. Jack Harkness. And _who_ are _you_?"

**CAPTAIN JACK ATTACK! I am sorry everybody, but I simply could not resist having him make an appearance. One of my greatest wishes is that they bring back Jack into Doctor Who, or even that they include him in whatever they do for the 50th anniversary (which had better have old Doctors in or I'm going to cry). But anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and thanks for all the brilliant reviews!**


	5. Chapter 5

__**Sorry this one took a little longer than usual, but hopefully it should be worth it :P Lots of Captain Jack in this one, which I am more than happy about - I have missed him! Thanks for the reviews and everything, it's awesome! :)**

_Rose's POV_

Rose was slightly stunned by the sparkling smile on this very good looking man's face – so much so that she could barely get her own name out.

"Rose Tyler."

"Nice to meet you Rose Tyler," Jack Harkness replied, shaking her hand firmly.

"Stop it."

Rose looked up at John, seeing his long suffering look and realising what he had meant when he had said "he's like this with everyone." Clearly John had been putting up with Jack for a long time.

"So John, finally got someone else to put up with you? People tend to leave him alone," he added in an obvious aside to Rose, "he's a bit odd."

"I am right here you know," said John, who seemed resigned to the fact that Jack was here and that he was planning to stay for a while, if the way he had flung himself down into a chair and propped his legs on the desk was any indication. "Rose, this is Jack Harkness, chief of medicine here at the hospital and the biggest flirt in the universe, I guarantee it."

Jack seemed to take this as a compliment rather than an insult. "It's true. But that's never stopped me before." He chose this moment to flash a grin at Rose, who felt herself almost blushing as he looked at her. What had happened? How had the appearance of Jack turned her into a blushing schoolgirl?

"Indeed," continued John, looking more than a bit annoyed at Jack's sudden appearance and his attitude towards Rose. This pleased Rose for some reason, though she could not for the life of her understand why she should be happy that her friend seemed almost jealous of the effect that Jack had on her. "And Jack, this is Rose Tyler, she's been my new assistant for a few days now."

"Well I gathered that. What I don't understand, however, is how she's managed to get you to share your office with her. The last I heard you would just about slaughter anyone who tried to set foot in here, never mind actually working in here with you!"

Rose was partly shocked but mostly amused – Jack didn't miss a trick! She looked past Jack to see that John was looking uncomfortable, and it was the first time that she had seen him speechless. Although on the outside she appeared to be completely calm, on the inside she felt just a bit of relief. In the short time she had known John, Rose had got the impression that he was someone that was very easy to like, and even easier to love, despite his tendency to lean towards arrogance. Having concrete proof that she was not just another of John's assistants or friends made her extremely happy because, if she was honest with herself, she had found herself hoping that John did not see her as just another in a long line. She had really hoped she was special, and it had only taken an encounter with a ridiculously flirty Chief of Medicine for her to realise this.

John appeared to have finally found some words, and Rose was amused to see the apparently casual manner in which he eventually replied. "Well, you know, it's easier than having someone in the next room, and Rose doesn't mind the mess or the constant babbling, so..."

"Yeah, the babbling's kind of cute," agreed Jack, raising an eyebrow at John who ignored him, "even if you can't understand half of what he's saying. Trust me, Rose, he's the cleverest guy in this hospital by far, but his social skills are about zero."

Rose giggled at this, and Jack joined in, swivelling around in his chair and laughing even more at John's hurt expression. "Hey, I do have social skills! It just so happens that most of the people 'round here are either annoying or grumpy or just plain evil! It's not my fault if I don't want to fraternise with the spawn of Satan!"

"I've got to agree on that front," chipped in Rose, "John's the only decent person I've met since I've been working here – they all stare at you like you're something on the bottom of their shoe."

"Maybe it's the company you keep," suggested Jack, jerking his head towards John who rolled his eyes and picked up his screwdriver, leaning against the edge of the desk as he listened to their conversation.

"And besides," continued Jack, "I'm decent. I'd go so far as to say that I'm pretty brilliant in fact."

Rose raised one eyebrow. "And so modest."

"I try," grinned Jack.

"So how do you and John know each other?" asked Rose, "He hasn't mentioned you."

"I wonder why," said Jack, sneaking a sly look at John, who was almost too focused on the device in his hand and seemed determined not to be drawn into the conversation again. "He doesn't like to be overshadowed by anyone, especially if they're not as smart as him. But we've known each other for years. I'm a few years older than him – though of course I look _years _younger – but he was a few years ahead of the others his age. Bit of a loner, no friends, sitting at the back of the class in his glasses."

Rose grinned at this – she was especially fond of John's glasses, they were tortoiseshell and quite square, and he always put them on when he was thinking hard about something. She had stolen them yesterday and put them on, which had escalated to him chasing her around the room trying to retrieve them. In hindsight, Rose wondered whether the reason John wasn't doing much work was more to do with her being there than anything else.

"Well, I guess I felt sorry for the poor little geek, so I decided to make friends with him. Call it my good deed for the day."

"Rubbish," scoffed John, "you just fancied me!"

"Well, we'll never know, will we," said Jack mysteriously, and John laughed, finally seeming to relax. He pulled up another chair as Jack continued to tell the story, shouting him down when he was exaggerating or leaving bits out. Between them they made Rose laugh hysterically, her eyes flicking back and forth between them as they took over the story from each other, embellishing it and taking it in turns to try and make the other one look bad (the story about how Jack had run around the whole campus naked on a dare had been one of Rose's particular favourites.)

"I'm not being funny or anything," said Rose at last, when both men were taking a moment to breathe after a particularly violent gale of laughter, "but aren't you supposed to be, like, in charge of the hospital? How do two guys like you get away with sitting around chatting for a whole afternoon and not doing anything?"

John and Jack looked at Rose for a moment, then at each other. "I really don't know," said John slowly. It was clear to Rose he hadn't really ever thought about it before, he had just accepted that this was the way it was.

"Well I do," said Jack.

"Of course you do," said John, rolling his eyes again and running a hand through his brown hair, making it even more out of control than Rose had ever seen it, which was really saying something.

"They all have a crush on me, you see," Jack told Rose in a mock-whisper, as though it were some sort of big secret. "I can get away with murder – not that I like to murder people, but it's nice to know I have the option."

This caused another bout of laughter, after which Jack finally decided that he had better be going. Rose suspected that Jack had a lot of places that he should have been rather than John's office, but Jack really did seem like the sort of person who could "get away with murder", so she was certain he could think up any excuses that needed to be made.

Rose got a warm hug and a flirty wink as a goodbye, as did John. Rose grinned at them – they were so cute – and picked up the paperwork she had been filling out as John shut the door behind Jack.

"So, that was Jack Harkness."

"Oh yes," replied John, flopping down into a chair and sitting slumped with his eyes closed. "And yes, he is always like that, and yes, he will probably be back here again tomorrow."

"Excellent," grinned Rose, not sure if she was happier about Jack coming back or the expression of exasperation and tiredness that had appeared on John's face.

"Yeah, excellent."

"But he's your best friend."

"Exactly. And having a best friend who flirts with everyone who he ever meets can be exhausting sometimes, especially when it's someone who you really like."

"What?" Rose was stunned.

John seemed stunned too."I mean, you know, someone who's a really good friend, like we are."

"Oh yeah, of course," agreed Rose, just about managed to hide the smug smile that was threatening to appear on her face until John wasn't looking.

And that was the way it went on, as days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months. John and Rose sharing their office, spending not enough time doing work and then suddenly realising how little they had done and having to work like crazy to catch up. Visits from Jack every few days, which Rose had noticed caused John to go quiet and moody afterwards. She dared to hope that it was because Jack was flirting so much with her, but Rose hadn't got to the point where she wanted to ask John about it. They were such good friends now, she couldn't risk their friendship. They were so close, they talked about everything and spent every day together and yet Rose never found herself needing any time away from him.

So of course she wasn't a bit nervous when she lost her keys and she couldn't get the spares from her neighbour who was on holiday until the next day, so John offered to let her spend the night at his flat. Nope. Not nervous at all.

Terrified, on the other hand, well that was a different matter.

**Ooh, things are actually happening! And don't worry, Jack will be back at some point, I could never leave him out. Oh god, I love him.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Woah, it had been a couple of days, I am so sorry everyone! There will be another chapter soon, I swear, and I hope you haven't all decided to ignore me because I spend too long updating! Also, in this fic, John's thoughts will be in bold, but the little voice in the back of his head (his conscience or whatever you want to call it) will be in** _italics _**. Thanks for being so patient with me. On with the show!**

_John's POV_

John could not believe that he had done it. In all of his years at the hospital (more than he like to remember) he had never invited his assistant to sleep at his flat before. Then again, none of his assistants had ever been in the situation where they'd needed a place to sleep before. Nevertheless, John was feeling a sense of dread by the time he and Rose had walked to his car that evening.

Rose slid into the passenger seat, apparently unaware of the tension that John was sure was radiating from him at this very moment. John turned the key and the car burst into life, turning on the CD player. John winced as Ian Dury and the Blockheads blasted through the car, the loud strains of "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" mingling with the sound of Rose's laughter as they echoed around the car.

"Sorry," John said, quickly twisting the volume control so that they could hear themselves think. Not that really wanted to hear what his brain had to say at this moment in time.

"So where do you live then?" asked Rose as John reversed the car and began to drive down the road, aware that it was darker than it normally was as he drove home. They had ended up staying late while John and Jack had an argument as to who had the best office (Rose had been assured that Jack's office was much less he disconcerting than John's, though to Rose had replied to that by saying that John's office felt like home, which had made him feel ridiculously happy) and so it was almost half past seven as they drove through the streets, John explaining that he lived only a few minutes away as he drove.

He stopped in front of his building and opened the door, waiting until Rose had gotten out before locking the doors.

"So this is where you live?" asked Rose, looking up at the tall building.

"Yep."

"Bigger on the inside?"

John grinned. "'Fraid not."

They had spent the evening laughing so hard that John was sure he must have burnt off all the pizza that they had just eaten. He wouldn't have thought that they could've had anything else to talk about, considering the amount of time they spent talking and not-working during the day, but they seemed to be able to find an endless supply of conversational topics from somewhere. After flicking through channels on the TV for a couple of hours and watching University Challenge (where they both screamed out the answers, Rose getting grumpy when John managed to get a lot of them right), Rose had snooped through his DVD collection and pulled out the Lion King. John had raised one eyebrow, before grinning and practically throwing it into the DVD player.

It was about half past ten, and the film had reached the moment when Simba's dad was appearing to him in the sky and telling him he should be king.

It was at this moment John became aware that Rose was leaning on him.

Not leaning on him loads like she was crushing him or anything, just leaning on him. Her head on his shoulder, her leg curled up on the sofa. She was warm and soft and he couldn't say he wasn't enjoying it, but John's arm was going to sleep. He decided that he needed to move to a more comfortable position before he lost all feeling in his arm.

Sensing that the moment was now, at the point when Simba was running back to Pride Rock (_you've watched this film too many times_, John reminded himself) John carefully slid his right arm from where it was pinned to his side. John felt relief that Rose had not noticed, as the last thing he wanted to happen was for Rose to move away. Unfortuntely (or fortunately, depending on how you looked at it) John now had nowhere to put his arm, so he gently slid it over and rested it around Rose's shoulders.

John did not think that he had ever put so much thought into one movement in his entire life, but at this moment he was very, very pleased with how it had gone. As soon as his arm was wrapped around her shoulders, Rose had snuggled into his side, continuing to watch the film as her right arm wrapped around his waist. **Oh god, we're cuddling**_, _John suddenly realised. **I did not intend for this to happen. What if this ruins everything? What if she doesn't like me in that way?**

_But you like her,_ said the voice in his head. _You always have, since the moment you met her. Why haven't you made a move yet? _

John had never really thought about this in detail, and his thoughts drifted away from the film as he began to prod his feelings. He had always liked her. It had been almost 3 months since they had started working together – normally John would have not wasted much time if he thought he liked someone. And yet with Rose...it was different. It was almost like they were already a couple, despite the fact that nothing like that had ever happened between them.

_You love her._

**No I don't.**

_Yes you do. _

**Oh crap.**

John dragged himself out of his convoluted thoughts, forcing himself to focus on the film once more. Rose was laughing as Rafiki used his staff to beat up some hyenas, and John joined her as Pumbaa charged down some more.

"I'd forgotten how much I love this film," remarked Rose, not seeming to have noticed how close together they were, nor how John had started absent-mindedly playing with her hair.

"It's one of my favourites."

"I can tell." Rose was smiling now, looking up at him mischievously. "The way you're singing along to the songs, and can say all the dialogue as well? I'm surprised you actually watch anything else apart from this!"

"I don't think I'm the only one who knows this film a bit too well," John replied, looking down at Rose with one eyebrow arched.

Rose grinned sheepishly. "Yeah well, it sort of spoke to me I guess. My dad died when I was very young, though he never did the appearing-in-the-sky thing like Mufasa did."

John was shocked that Rose could talk about it so casually, though luckily it sounded as though she had been too young to remember something so traumatic. He paused for a moment before replying.

"I don't have dad either. Or a mum." He could feel her eyes on his face, could tell from the way that she had shifted that she was staring at him. "I had a family once, brothers and a sister and everything. Not any more."

"What happened," asked Rose, almost hesitantly.

John kept his eyes on the TV screen, wondering why Rose was the first person he had talked to about this since it had happened. He never brought it up with friends, girlfriends, anyone. Only Jack knew, and that was only because they'd been friends when it had happened. He glued his eyes to the film, where Simba was assuming his role as king.

"Fire," was all he could manage at first. "I was at medical school but I was only about 19 at the time. I was a few years ahead of everyone else my age. While I was away our house caught fire. The whole thing went up in smoke. My mum and dad tried to get the others out but...it was too late. The fire was by the front door, they couldn't get down the stairs. That was it. My whole family, my whole life, gone."

The credits of the film were rolling, and now Rose was sitting up, kneeling on the sofa so she was facing him. He still had not risked looking at her face.

"You're alone," Rose stated. She did not apologise, as most people did. She just said it, this fact that was possibly the truest thing that had ever been said about him.

"Yep," he replied, feeling tears pricking his eyes but knowing that they wouldn't fall. They never did, he made sure of it.

The next thing he knew Rose was hugging him, and he allowed his arms to wrap as tightly around her as they could while he buried his face in her hair. This wasn't like their usual hugs at the end of the day, at the bus stop or at the hospital door – this was desperate and sad and comforting all at the same time, and John had never felt more grateful to have someone there to hug than at that moment.

**There will be more soon, I have already half written the next chapter so it shouldn't be long. Thanks for all the reviews and everything!**


	7. Chapter 7

**This is a long one, but I wanted to get to this point by the end of the chapter. Look out for the Harry Potter references - I couldn't help myself, you know how much the Tenth Doctor loves it. Thanks for all carrying on reading, and I hope you like it!**

_John's POV_

Rose pulled away, and John could see tears shining in her eyes. "The film's finished," she told him, and they both looked around to where the credits were still rolling.

John quickly sprung up from the sofa, eager to break the somewhat sombre and unnervingly intense atmosphere that he had created. He removed the DVD from the machine and slipped the box back into its place on the shelf. "Bed?"

"Well, I think for me you mean 'sofa'."

John suddenly felt awkward, tugging on his ear as he always did when he was in these situations. "Oh yeah, um, let me just get you some blankets and things. Oh, and you can borrow one of my t-shirts to sleep in if you want?"

Rose smiled at him, looking genuinely touched that he had thought of that. "Yeah, that'd be great."

John left Rose sitting on the sofa and returned a few minutes later with a stack of blankets, pillows, and his oversized Harry Potter t-shirt. He knew this would amuse her – a discussion on Harry Potter a couple of weeks ago had led to shouting arguments as to whether or not Ron and Hermione should have ended up together, and the fallout from that argument had put John into a strop until lunchtime the next day.

He gave her the blankets, watching her face transform into a smile as she saw the t-shirt he had given her to wear. "But surely this is your favourite t-shirt?" she said slyly, and they both laughed together, John feeling simultaneously relaxed and awkward, a combination of emotions that he hadn't thought was possible before this moment.

"Yes it is, don't you feel privileged that I've decided to let you wear it? But anyway, there's a spare toothbrush in the bathroom. Go on, I'll sort out the bed."

"Sofa," she reminded him as she picked up the t-shirt and made her way to the bathroom.

John took the cushions off the sofa and pulled at the front of it, dragging and unfolding until there was a small double bed standing there. The Doctor sorted the cushions and spread out the blankets, hoping that his sofa bed was comfortable – he had never had to sleep on it himself.

He heard the sound of running water in the bathroom as he walked past, heading to his own room to get into his pyjamas. They were blue and white striped and they were his favourites but, as it was quite a warm night, he left the top off and wandered back into the lounge in just the bottoms. Not that he was doing that deliberately or anything. Of course not.

He wandered back into the lounge, making sure that Rose was alright before he went off to his own room to sleep – or to think about the fact that Rose was sleeping in the next room, which seemed a lot more likely. Rose was already lying in bed when he peeped his head around the door. She propped herself up on her elbows when she saw him, smiling almost shyly. She was wearing his Harry Potter t-shirt and had no make-up on. He wouldn't have said she looked all that much younger – _oh god, age gap, haven't even thought about that yet! – _but in John's opinion she looked far more beautiful.

"Night then, Rose," he said, thinking about how long it had been since he had come in to wish someone goodnight. Suddenly realising how fond he had become of the woman who was smiling at him from his sofa-bed in his living room – he wouldn't let himself even think of the word 'love' – John lost control of his movements for once in his life, and quickly walked over to the bed. Rose was watching him, possibly figuring out why he was there. Maybe she expected a hug – John loved hugging Rose, and proceeded to do so very often. However, this time a hug was not John's purpose. He sat down on the bed, leaned over and placed one hand on the side of Rose's face, before very gently leaning in and kissing her.

He had assumed that there would be a part of him that would see the downside of this move, a part of him that would be making itself known with thoughts about what a bad idea it was to cross this line with Rose, but there wasn't. All he could feel was every single cell in his body shouting in triumph and happiness that he had finally done what he had wanted to do for what felt like such a long time now. Rose had beautifully soft lips, as he had thought she would, and her arms had crept around his neck, one tangling in his hair (John had always suspected that she had a soft spot for his hair.) She was kissing him back and he pulled her to him, the blanket caught between them and hi s arms around her waist now.

Rose shifted on the bed, from lying to sitting until they were both kneeling opposite each other. She did this without breaking the kiss for a second (a feat that impressed John no end) and now they were pressed against each other, and John had his arms wrapped around her so tightly that it occurred to him that he might be squashing her, though Rose didn't seem to mind. The kiss was growing in intensity and John was beginning to need air, and yet he wanted nothing more than to keep his lips moving against Rose Tyler's for all eternity.

They finally moved apart, just enough to rest their foreheads against each together, gasping for air but still not unwrapping their arms from where they were anchored around each other.

"Why," breathed John, "have we not done _that _before?"

"Because we work together and because we both know that Jack would have a field day?" suggested Rose.

"Oh yeah," said John, "somehow those reasons don't seem important anymore."

"I'm gonna have to agree with you there." Rose extricated one of her arms and used it to brush her hair back from her face. John reached up and covered her hand with his own, bringing it down until their clasped hands were resting on Rose's knee. This familiar gesture relaxed them both, any remnants of tension or intensity disappearing as they began to laugh, harder and harder until they were both lying on their backs, cackling with glee. Slowly their giggles died down, until both Rose and John had managed to calm down completely, John clutching a stitch in his side.

After a little while of staring at the ceiling in comfortable silence, Rose turned to John, smiling at him and saying "oh, by the way, loving the absence of your pyjama top."

John grinned at her. "I thought that, if you wanted me to wear one, I could always borrow the one you're wearing."

This earned him a smack on the arm. "Oi, none of that or you'll be back in your own bed."

John gave Rose a quick salute before slipping under the blankets to join her. He flicked off the light next to him, and Rose's sleepy voice floated through the darkness to him. "Oh, I forgot. Night, John."

John smiled and entwined her fingers with his own, before rolling over and drifting into a deep sleep.

He awoke about an hour later to find that Rose had rolled over and that she was now pressed right up against his side. He moved his arm until it was around her shoulders, and was amused to find that she automatically cuddled into him, head resting on his bare chest and her arm wrapping around his waist. John pressed a kiss gently to her forehead and closed his eyes, enjoying her warmth and her smell and wondering how the hell he was going to be able to sleep on his own ever again.

The next day was mostly normal, but with a larger than usual proportion of embarrassment, especially as they ran into Jack while on the way to their office (John liked that. _Their _office.) He was completely aware of what them arriving together and Rose wearing the same clothes as yesterday would look like, and he was also sure that Jack had been lying in wait for them just past the foyer, even though he had no idea that Rose had stayed at John's last night. John had suspected for a long time that Jack had a sixth sense for these kinds of things, and for a moment he considered simply grabbing Rose's hand and making a run for it. Too late.

"And what were you two doing last night?" John winced, not daring to look at Rose and really hoping that he couldn't feel a blush creeping into his cheeks.

"Rose lost her keys so she slept on my sofa," John replied in what he hoped was a nonchalant manner, though his voice sounded rather higher than it had the last time he had spoken.

"Oh right, of course," said Jack, leaning on the wall with an expression that clearly said 'don't believe a word of it'.

"Well that's settled then," said Rose breezily, sweeping past Jack and continuing up the stairs with a casual air that John couldn't help but admire. Good god, what was the point of being extremely clever if you couldn't even talk your way out of an awkward situation.

With Rose out of earshot, Jack leaned in. "So, come on. If you're both telling the truth, and I haven't decided yet whether you are, then something must've happened. I have known you for years, Doctor Smith, and there are very few people that have ever been able to make you blush like you just did. So spill."

"Oh for god's sake Jack—"

"Nope." Jack was standing right in front of him now, blocking his way. "You are not running off and you are not talking your way out of this one. If I'm right, and I'm always right about these sorts of things, I think you love her." John rolled his eyes and tried to push past Jack, but Jack wasn't having any of it. "No, just listen to me. You love her and, if I'm right, she loves you. So what went on last night?"

"Well... I kissed her."

Jack grinned. "Thought so. Anything else?"

"Well, we slept on the sofa-bed together, but nothing happened."

"Hmm, well here's my question: why not?"

John spluttered for a moment – he did not want to be having this conversation. For a moment he wondered whether he could punch Jack in the face and get back to his car in the time it took for Jack to recover. He doubted it. "What do you mean 'why not?'? I can't just go around sleeping with everyone I kiss, I'm not you, Jack!"

Jack raised an eyebrow at this. "Thanks very much. But this isn't everyone, this is Rose. All I'm saying is you've got to tell her, because if you don't and then she leaves because she thinks you don't feel the same way, then you will regret it. I've never seen you like this before, so just _tell her._"

John was stunned, and stayed standing by the wall in the corridor as Jack gave him one last look and walked off, back to his usual cheerful self. Brilliant. He was getting life lessons from the biggest flirt in the universe and, however much it hurt him to admit it, everything that Jack had said was right.

He loved Rose Tyler.

Now he had to tell her.

**Hee hee, a bit of relationship advice from Jack. I love the idea that John really is a bit awkward about relationships, I think there is something of that in the Doctor. Next chapter will be from Rose's POV, and might be the last one :) Thanks for all your reviews!**

**Also, shamelessly adding that my tumblr blog (primarily concerned with Doctor Who and Doctor/Rose) url is donna-and-her-spaceman.  
**

**Just in case you wanted to know...  
**


	8. Chapter 8

__**Well, here it is, the last chapter! Sorry about the wait. Just to let you know, there is a bit more kissing, a bit more talking and a splash of Jack Harkness for good measure :P Enjoy! **

_Rose's POV_

Over the next week Rose noticed a change in John. Well, sort of a change. He was the same as ever, laughing and joking and cluttering up his desk with tools and wires, but there was something else underneath that Rose couldn't quite figure out. It was like he was cutting himself off from her. Their hugs were shorter and they just didn't feel as warm and comforting as they had before. She had noticed that John had started to avoid her gaze, to draw in on himself as if he couldn't look her in the eye.

So this was it. This was the price that she was going to pay for kissing John. She should've known better really, although it wasn't as if anything beyond a kiss had actually happened, so what was the problem? The problem was that she liked him. Not just in the way that he was now her best friend, that she had known him for months and trusted him and spent all her time with him. She _really _liked him.

She loved him.

Once she had admitted this to herself, Rose had thought that she would actually feel a lot better. Being sure of how you felt was surely a good thing, and yet she felt worse than ever, because, slowly but surely, John was pulling away.

It was exactly a week after the night when they had slept on the sofa-bed together, and Rose was sitting in her usual chair, feet up on John's desk and pen in hand. The fact that she hadn't written anything for the past 2 hours seemed to have escaped John's attention. He was too busy soldering something – _when did he get a soldering iron? – _to notice that Rose had been staring into space for a long time, tapping her pen against the side of her head as she tried to figure out what she should do.

She decided to just try and talk to John. They were both adults (although _one _of them didn't act like it most of the time) and she could gauge what his feelings were before deciding how to approach the topic.

"Why are you a doctor anyway?" Rose didn't know where this question had come from, but once it had been spoken she found that it was something she'd always wanted to know. John looked up questioningly as Rose continued. "I mean, you clearly like all this...you know...you like making weird gadgets and soldering things and wiring and stuff, why don't you do something like that?"

John stood up straight, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes before answering. He looked tired – Rose wondered if he had been sleeping at all. "Well, I always wanted to do something like that. Why do you think I have "PhD" on my door? I actually have a Doctorate in Astrophysics."

"But I thought you went to medical school with Jack?"

"I did. I was quite a few years ahead of everyone else my age though, if you recall. I actually finished my Doctorate before I even started medical school."

"Bloody hell," Rose muttered, not really having considered how intelligent John actually was before, "so why give that stuff up if you wanted to go and, I don't know, build space rockets or something?"

John looked at her, and Rose could see sadness in his eyes, despite the smile on his lips. "Because I wanted to help people. And despite however much I wanted to go and help with space exploration or whatever I was going to do, there are enough people here on Earth who need helping."

Rose couldn't think of anything to say to that. _Damn him! _she thought, _does he have to be this _nice_ all the time? _

"Time to go home anyway," John added, leaping up and dragging on his long brown coat before Rose even had the chance to put her paperwork on the desk.

"Wait," Rose blurted out, inwardly cursing herself for stopping him. She didn't want to confront him now, she didn't want to know if he didn't feel the same, she would rather live in ignorance. But it was too late now, he had stopped with the door wide open, turning towards her with confusion on his face.

"What?"

"Um...I've got to talk to you."

He stayed standing by the door. "If this is about me stealing your shoe the other day, I'm sorry that I let you stand in that puddle, and I'm equally sorry that Jack swooped in and carried you back inside."

Rose smirked. "It was actually quite fun."

John frowned a little, and Rose gave him a charming smile, the one with her tongue poking out between her teeth that she knew he couldn't resist.

"But anyway, I really needed to talk to you because, well...this past week you've been...weird."

John raised an eyebrow.

"OK, weirder than usual."

"What do you mean—"

"You know what I mean!" Rose's anger had crept up on her, and now she found herself standing up, completely furious at him, with his stupid face and his stupid hair and his stupid freckles across his stupid nose. "You haven't even been looking at me properly, you've been getting colder and more distant and if this is about what happened last week then it's a good thing we didn't sleep together because if we had you'd probably just be sitting in the corner in a cardboard box and just using one word answers instead of actually talking to me."

John moved away from the door, pushing it so that it swung almost closed and turned to face her completely, hands in his trouser pockets. "I'm not trying to push you away, Rose. There's nothing wrong with me, I just..." He trailed off, mouth attempting to form the words that wouldn't come.

"There is something wrong with you," Rose told him, her whole body tense as she screwed up her courage for what she was about to do, "and I think it's because you're scared, no, just hear me out." John had opened his mouth to reply but Rose held up her hand, determined to see this through. _He _might be a coward, but _she_ certainly wasn't. "I think you're a coward – you're scared that there might actually be something between us and you don't know what to do, so you're pushing me away. You don't let people get close to you because you always lose them and you're worried that's going to happen to me. Did I miss anything out?"

John only gave a tiny shake of his head, face set in a look of sadness and loneliness that Rose could not bear. She stepped a little closer to him, knowing that she was going to have to be the one to do this, that he never would if she didn't show him how she felt.

"John Smith, I love you." She watched as his eyes widened, his hands came out of his pockets, one tugging on his ear while he ran the other through his hair. "Please don't panic."

John walked away, wandering about the room as he always did when he was figuring out a problem, pacing and grabbing handfuls of his hair. He came to a halt in front of her. "You love me."

She nodded.

"Really?"

She nodded again, unable to say a word as she attempted to read his face.

"I was worried that you didn't." Rose felt her next breath catch in her throat. "Jack told me to tell you, when we came into work together last week, he stopped me and he just knew, and he said that I had to tell you otherwise I'd lose you, but I couldn't bear the thought that I would tell you and that you wouldn't feel the same way and I would ruin everything!"

Rose found herself suddenly smiling. All of the tension in her body had suddenly disappeared as she watched John babble about what Jack had said to him. Her whole body was filling with warmth and she was sure there were tears pricking in the corners of her eyes. She didn't even notice than John had stopped talking and was staring at her, calm and collected and certain.

He strode towards her, opening his arms and crushing her to his chest. Her arms were around him in an instant, and she buried her face in his shoulder and breathed in his smell. They swayed on the spot for a few moments, before John pulled back, grinning like the idiot that Rose knew he was, and kissed her.

It was soft, sweet and just perfect. Rose's eyes had fluttered shut and she felt slightly light-headed as her nose squished against his and he felt his arms gently circle her waist.

John moved back just a few inches, just enough for him to be able to look in Rose's eyes.

"Rose Tyler, I love you," he said, and Rose could hear the sincerity and happiness in his voice.

"Quite right too," she replied, smiling at him and pulling his head down for another kiss.

"Ha ha!" came a triumphant voice from the doorway. "Finally, it's taken you long enough; I was beginning to think it would never happen!"

Rose opened one eye to find that Jack had pushed the door open slightly, and was grinning smugly at them, as though he had arranged the whole thing himself. She lifted one leg and kicked the door, slamming it shut and causing a cry of pain from Jack.

"Ow! That was my nose!"

Rose looked away from the door to find John grinning at her. "Nice one."

"You know what they say," she grinned, "tell a guy you love him, beat up his best friend."

John laughed at this, and Rose could feel it reverberating through his chest and into hers. "He's going to wait out there 'til we come out, I think we might need to make a run for it."

Rose took his hand in hers, placing her other one on the doorknob. "After you."

"Allons-y!"

Rose yanked open the door, they flew past John who fell backwards from his position listening at the door, slamming into the wall and staring after them as they sprinted down the corridor, laughing with the sheer joy of it all.

Jack pushed himself away from the wall, standing upright and straightening his clothes. "I guess he told her then," he said quietly to himself, watching as the end of John's long brown coat whipped around the corner, and smiling contentedly as the last echoes of their ecstatic laughter reached his ears.

The next day there came a knock on the office door. Rose opened it and looked out, frowning when she realised there was no-one there. She turned around, ready to go back in and ask John if he had been working on his ventriloquism again (he had managed to make her think he was outside the door when he was in fact under the desk a few weeks ago) when she caught sight of the plaque on the door.

"John," she said, beckoning with her hand and smiling. John walked up and stood just behind her, eyes following her pointing finger until they rested on the nameplate that had replaced the old one. It was deep blue, the same as that last one, but this one read "Doctor John Smith _and _Rose Tyler."

John pulled Rose into a hug, grinning and pressing a kiss to her head, before pulling her back into the office and closing the door.

Down the corridor, just around the corner, Jack watched them step back into the office together like a proud parent. _As it should be,_ he thought, before wandering off down the corridor. He would give them an hour or so alone before he burst in and told Rose about the time John had woken up from a night of insane drinking with Jack and had been absolutely certain that the hospital had been transported to the moon.

**Aw, I feel sad that it's over now! Jack is such a sweetie, I think he needs a hug :) Thankyou for reading this, it's been so great to get all your lovely reviews (though, of course, keep 'em coming if you want to! :P) Keep an eye out for more of my fics, and keep smiling - allons-y!**


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